Saturday morning, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski will be doused with a bucket of ice and near-frozen water. It will almost certainly mess up the few strands of hair left on his head and give his clothes a less-than-flattering look.

Why would hizzoner subject himself to this? About 7.6 million reasons — and counting.

It's a social media-generated dare designed to raise awareness of ALS and money for research, and has been taken this week by such local residents as Lafayette College football coach Frank Tavani, Lehigh University football coach Andy Coen and soon, the good mayor of Allentown.

"I've done some crazy things, but never a bucket of ice over the head," said Pawlowski, a regular participant in the Valley's ALS walk, which is scheduled for Oct. 18 in Allentown. "It's for a great cause. I'll have some interesting people to challenge when I do it."

Here's what it entails: A person drenches himself (or has a friend do it for him) with a bucket of ice water, posts a video of the experience on social media and challenges three friends to do the same.

If I wanted to help suicide victims, should I bungee jump off the 8th street bridge? If I wanted to raise money for cancer victims, should I smoke a carton of cigs?, Should I drink a gallon of tequila to help raise money for recovering alcoholics? Why must a publicity stunt be performed in...

Those not interested in taking an ice bath are asked to donate to the ALS Association, the fatal neurodegenerative disorder that attacks the nervous system and renders victims unable to walk, use their hands, eat, speak and, eventually, breathe. About 30,000 are afflicted nationwide, and most will die within five years of being diagnosed.

The phenomenon was started in early July near Boston when former Boston College baseball captain Peter Frates, a 29-year-old ALS patient, and his family made the first challenges. It quickly shivered across the nation, chilling the likes of Michael Strahan, Adam Levine and Ethel Kennedy.

Since then, $7.6 million has been raised for ALS research, compared with $1.4 million raised last year during the same period, said Tony Heyl, spokesman for the Philadelphia Chapter of the ALS Association. And the staff at the ALS Association has been happily overwhelmed.

"Our whole organization wasn't prepared for this," Heyl said. "This really speaks to the power of social media. What's happening is terrific."

Former Moravian College women's soccer coach Brienne Smith was near the ground floor of the craze. Now a coach at Clark University outside of Boston, she did her challenge July 5 — while juggling a soccer ball. She said she expected this to happen.

"It's such a smart challenge. It's awfully hard not to accept," Smith said. "I don't think I have a single friend on Facebook that hasn't done it yet."

It's difficult to identify why the concept of getting soaked has caught fire, but the fact that it's a friendly challenge for a good cause would appear to have something to do with it. Coen did his Wednesday, after being challenged by friend and archrival Tavani, who did it Tuesday.

"How could I not accept that kind of challenge?" Coen joked. "Honestly, I'm glad we're on the same page with this one, we both know people with ALS. It's a terrible disease."

Heyl sheepishly noted that Giants, Redskins and Cowboys players have all taken the challenge. Um, isn't there one NFC East team missing there?

"I'm sure the Eagles are just really focused on that next game," Heyl said. "I'm sure they'll join their rivals."

And now they have little choice — showing the beauty of a well-constructed campaign.

When Frates issued the challenge it was designed entirely to spread awareness. The money part just sort of happened.

Still, the awareness may be the biggest benefit to what's going on, ALS Association national spokesman Greg Cash said. Association surveys show that more than half the population has no knowledge about ALS beyond the fact that baseball great Lou Gehrig had it.

Since the challenge started, the association has received money from 146,000 first-time donors, and there's no indication it will be cooling off soon. Donations have been increasing almost every day. More than $1.4 million was raised Wednesday alone, the biggest day so far.

"We didn't start this, and we certainly wouldn't be able to shut it off," Cash said. "Not that we'd want to. This is incredible."